This tutorial, on how to upload images to a Wordpress blog, has one prerequisite. That is that you must have a folder named Upload in your wp-content folder and it must have write permissions (777) set. Once that’s done, lets move on.
Step 1: Login to the admin area of your Wordpress blog.

Step 2: Click on the Write Post tab to create a new post.

Usually, I write (and save) my post before adding images, but that’s up to you.

Step 3: Scroll down until you see the Upload area.

Step 4: Click the Browse… button and it will allow you to find the image you want to use on your hard drive. Once you’ve found it, enter in a title and hit upload. Description is optional.

Once it’s been uploaded you’ll then see a Browse tab with the image you just uploaded in it.

Step 5: Click on the image to get the image options.

Options Overview:
‘Using Thumbnail’ means that when sent to the editor, it’ll be a small version of the image in the post. Click on that link and it’ll switch to ‘Using Original’. That means that when you send it to the editor, it’ll use the original size of the image.

One of the things that bugs me about Wordpress is this WYSIWYG editor. It’s nice, but it has a tendency to eat your code. However, I found out a few cool features.

Did you know that you can put in basic HTML code into the WYSIWYG editor and it’ll render out as HTML when you hit save or publish? You can put in bold, italic, span, link and image HTML tags all in the WYSIWYG editor. Have an image on Flickr you want to post? Put the entire raw code that Flickr gives you into the editor, and it’ll be converted into a pretty image when you post it. That’s quite handy when you don’t feel like toggling back and forth between the HTML window.

This does not work as nice though with services like YouTube that offer Flash elements. Embedding Flash is a bit more tricky. I’ve found it best to use Safari or a browser that doesn’t do the whole WYSIWYG thing. Then putting in the YouTube code works fine.

If I look back over all the blogs I read, most have photos associated with their posts. Maybe not every day, but quite often. It makes me wonder, do photos increase the number of subscribers to a blog?

If you stop and think about it, there are two kinds of people out there, the analytical/text people and the visual people. There are those than buy the New York Time’s best seller books and those that would prefer a magazine with less reading and more pictures. So, with that in mind, if your blog posts don’t include images, are you just targeting one audience then?

They say “a picture is worth a thousand words” and I couldn’t agree more. If I bring up a website and see happy smiling people, I feel comfortable and welcome. If I see a blog post that includes an Apple logo or an iPod, my eyes are instantly drawn to the post. Images give an instant summary of what the post is about.

With that in mind, I’m going to start inserting more graphics. There are plenty of free image hosting services out there (like Flickr or Zooomr) and all blogs come with an image manager build in. So why the heck not?

I have just activated the Post Teaser plugin. It cuts off each post around 100 words and ends up shortening up the homepage.

I seem to go back and forth on the idea of post summaries vs full posts on a blog homepage. I’d like to get your input, what do you feel is better.

Putting post summaries shortens up your homepage; without removing any posts. It gives users a certain number of words and then cuts the post off. This leaves the visitor having to click thru the posts individual page to finish reading.

This is good as it allows visitors to quickly skip over any posts they don’t want to read. It also cuts down on any duplicate content issues as you don’t have the exact same post on the homepage as you do on the individual page. However, it may be annoying to your visitor to have to click into the post to continue reading. Will they forget to come back to the homepage?

I guess it depends on the person. For the most part, I don’t know of too many people that read every word in every post on a blog. Some posts just aren’t interesting, to long, or not targeted towards some visitors.

The Online Marketing Blog got a face lift today as the new design was made public. I’ve spent quite a few hours on it the past couple of weeks and I’m very pleased with the outcome.

The new design cleans up the look and feel quite a bit. The header area has been condensed a little and the menu has been re-worked stand out a bit more. The design also removes the left column and gives more room for posts. This is a big feature as it gives the ability to post bigger pictures and long posts don’t look quite so long.

Other features include:

• More prominent RSS icon with a drop down menu that includes the feed buttons.
• No tables, all cascading style sheets (CSS).
• A few social bookmark icons followed by a drop down social bookmark menu with many other choices.
• A live, ajax search box.
• Separate pages for archives and resources.
• Fancy quote boxes.
• Overall, design upgrade.

The feedback so far has been quite positive. The trick now is to keep the clean and organized look and feel as the weeks and months go on.